''Salome'' (French: ''Salomé'', ) is a one-act

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. The original 1891 version of the play was in French; an English translation was published three years later. The play depicts the attempted seduction of Jokanaan (

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

) by

Salome Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...

, step-daughter of

Herod Antipas Herod Antipas ( el, Ἡρῴδης Ἀντίπας, ''Hērǭdēs Antipas''; born before 20 BC – died after 39 AD), was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch ("ruler of a quarter") and is referred to as both "H ...

; her dance of the seven veils; the execution of Jokanaan at Salome's instigation; and her death on Herod's orders. The first production was in Paris in 1896. Because the play depicted biblical characters it was banned in Britain and was not performed publicly there until 1931. The play became popular in Germany, and Wilde's text was taken by the composer

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

as the basis of his 1905 opera ''

'', the international success of which has tended to overshadow Wilde's original play. Film and other adaptations have been made of the play.

Background and first production

When Wilde began writing ''Salome'' in late 1891 he was known as an author and critic, but was not yet established as a playwright. ''

Lady Windermere's Fan ''Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman'' is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first performed on Saturday, 20 February 1892, at the St James's Theatre in London. The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband i ...

'' was completed but not yet staged, and his other West End successes, '' A Woman of No Importance'', ''

An Ideal Husband ''An Ideal Husband'' is a four-act play by Oscar Wilde that revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. It was first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London in 1895 and ran for ...

'' and ''

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...

'', were yet to come.Edwards, Owen Dudley
"Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills (1854–1900), writer"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 2004. Retrieved 6 April 2021 He had been considering the subject of

since his undergraduate days at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

when

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, art critic and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of the Re ...

introduced him to Flaubert's story ''Hérodias'' in 1877. The biographer Peter Raby comments that Wilde's interest had been further stimulated by descriptions of

Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau (; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence".Cassou, Jean. 1979. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism.' ...

's paintings of Salome in

Joris-Karl Huysmans Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel ''À rebou ...

's ''

À rebours ''À rebours'' (; translated ''Against Nature'' or ''Against the Grain'') is an 1884 novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans. The narrative centers on a single character: Jean des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive, ailing aesthete. The l ...

'' and by

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

's ''Atta Troll'',

Jules Laforgue Jules Laforgue (; 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbo ...

's "Salomé" in ''Moralités Légendaires'' and

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...

's ''Hérodiade''. Wilde wrote the play while staying in Paris and explained to an interviewer the following year why he had written it in French: He submitted the play to the leading French actress

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...

, who accepted it for production in her 1892 season at the

Royal English Opera House The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. Its red-brick facade dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus behind a small plaza near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road. The Palace ...

, in London. The play went into rehearsals in June, but at that time all plays presented in Britain had to be approved by the official censor, the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main cha ...

. Approval was withheld because of a rule prohibiting the depiction of biblical characters on stage. Wilde expressed outrage and said he would leave England and take French citizenship. Bernhardt too condemned the ban and said she would present the play in Paris at some time, although she could not say when. The play was published in French in 1893 in Paris by the Librarie de l'Art Independent and in London by Elkin Mathews and John Lane. It is dedicated "À mon ami

Pierre Louÿs Pierre Louÿs (; 10 December 1870 – 4 June 1925) was a French poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who sought to "express pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection". ...

". The author was pleased by the favourable reception given to the published play by leading Francophone writers, in particular

Pierre Loti Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica El ...

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

and Mallarmé. Wilde never saw the play produced. The only performances given in his lifetime were in 1896, by which time he was serving a prison sentence for illegal homosexual activity. The play was first given, in the original French, in a one-off performance on 11 February 1896 by the Théâtre de l'Œuvre company at the Théâtre de la Comédie-Parisienne, as the second part of a double bill with

Romain Coolus René Max Weill (25 May 1868 – 9 September 1952), who used the pseudonym Romain Coolus, was a French novelist, dramatist and film scriptwriter. Biography Works Theater * 1893 : ''Le Ménage Brésile'' (first play), one-act comedy, at ...

's comedy ''Raphaël''."Les Théâtres"
''Le Figaro'', 12 February 1896, p. 3 The main roles were played as follows: *Iokanaan – Max Barbier *Hérode –

Lugné-Poe Aurélien-Marie Lugné (27 December 1869 19 June 1940), known by his stage and pen name Lugné-Poe, was a French actor, theatre director, and scenic designer. He founded the landmark Paris theatre company, the Théâtre de l'Œuvre, which produced ...

*Young Syrian – M. Nerey *A Jew – M. Labruyère *First Soldier – M. Lévêque *Salomé – Lina Munte *Hérodias – Mlle Barbieri *Page to Hérodias – Suzanne Auclaire The play was given again in October 1896 in a Wilde double bill at the Nouveau-Théâtre, with a French adaptation of ''Lady Windermere's Fan''. Charles Daumerie played Herod and Munte again played Salome.

English and other translations

A biographer of Wilde,

Owen Dudley Edwards Owen Dudley Edwards (born 27 March 1938) is an Irish historian and former Reader in Commonwealth and American History at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the son of Professor Robert Dudley Edwards and brother to the Irish writer, Rut ...

, comments that the play "is apparently untranslatable into English", citing attempts made by

Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carried a homoer ...

, Aubrey Beardsley, Wilde himself revising Douglas's botched effort, Wilde's son

Vyvyan Holland Vyvyan Beresford Holland, (born Vyvyan Oscar Beresford Wilde; 3 November 1886 – 10 October 1967) was an English author and translator. He was the second-born son of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd, and had a brother, Cyril. ...

, Jon Pope,

Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director. As a theatre maker he is recognised for staging work with a heightened performance style eponymously k ...

and others, and concluding "it demands reading and performance in French to make its impact". The most familiar English version is by Douglas, extensively revised by Wilde, originally published in 1894. Wilde dedicated the first edition "To my friend Lord Alfred Douglas, the translator of my play". It was lavishly produced, with illustrations by Beardsley that Wilde thought over-sophisticated.Ellmann, p. 376 An American edition, with the Beardsley illustrations, was published in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1896. In the 1890s and 1900s translations were published in at least eleven other languages, from Dutch in 1893 to Yiddish in 1909.

Plot

Characters

, Tetrarch of Judea * Jokanaan, the Prophet *The young Syrian, Captain of the guard *Tigellinus, a young Roman *A Cappadocian *A Nubian *First soldier *Second soldier *The page of Herodias *Jews, Nazarenes, etc. *A slave *Naaman, the Executioner *

Herodias Herodias ( el, Ἡρῳδιάς, ''Hērǭdiás''; ''c.'' 15 BC – after AD 39) was a princess of the Herodian dynasty of Judaea during the time of the Roman Empire. Christian writings connect her with John the Baptist's execution. Family relat ...

, Wife of the Tetrarch *

, daughter of Herodias *The slaves of Salomé

Synopsis

Jokanaan (John the Baptist, Iokanaan in the original French text) has been imprisoned by Herod Antipas in a cistern below the terrace of Herod's palace, for his hostile comments about Herodias, Herod's second wife. A young captain of the guard admires the beautiful princess Salome, Herod's stepdaughter. A page warns the captain that something terrible may happen if he continues to stare at the princess. Salome is fascinated by Jokanaan's voice. She persuades the captain to open the cistern so that the prophet can emerge, and she can see him and touch him. Jokanaan appears, denouncing Herodias and her husband. At first frightened by the sight of the holy man, Salome becomes fascinated by him, begging him to let her touch his hair, his skin and his lips. When she tells him she is Herodias's daughter, he calls her a "daughter of Sodom" and bids her keep away from him. All Salome's attempts to attract him fail, and he swears she will never kiss his mouth, cursing her as the daughter of an adulteress and advising her to seek the Lord. He returns to his underground confinement. The young captain of the guard, unable to bear Salome's desire for another man, fatally stabs himself. Herod appears from the palace, looking for the princess and commenting on the strange look of the moon. When he slips in the captain's blood, he suddenly panics. Herodias dismisses his fears and asks him to go back inside with her, but Herod's attention has turned libidinously towards Salome, who rejects his advances. From the cistern, Jokanaan resumes his denunciation of Herodias; she demands that Herod hand the prophet over to the Jews. Herod refuses, maintaining that Jokanaan is a holy man and has seen God. His words spark an argument among the Jews concerning the true nature of God, and two Nazarenes talk about the miracles of Jesus. As Jokanaan continues to accuse her, Herodias demands that he is silenced. Herod asks Salome to dance for him. She refuses, but when he promises to give her anything she wants, she agrees. Ignoring her mother's pleas – "Ne dansez pas, ma fille" – "Do not dance, my daughter" – Salome performs the dance of the seven veils. Delighted, Herod asks what reward she would like, and she asks for the head of Jokanaan on a silver platter. Horrified, Herod refuses, while Herodias rejoices at Salome's choice. Herod offers other rewards, but Salome insists and reminds Herod of his promise. He finally yields. The executioner descends into the cistern, and Salome impatiently awaits her reward. When the prophet's head is brought to her, she passionately addresses Jokanaan as if he were still alive and finally kisses his lips: Herod, frightened and appalled at Salome's behaviour, orders the soldiers, "Tuez cette femme!" – "Kill that woman!", and they crush her to death under their shields.

Revivals

International

In 1901, within a year of Wilde's death, ''Salome'' was produced in Berlin by

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he i ...

in Hedwig Lachmann's German translation, and ran, according to

Robbie Ross Robert Baldwin Ross (25 May 18695 October 1918) was a Canadian-British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend and literary executor. A grandson of the Canadian ...

, for "a longer consecutive period in Germany than any play by any Englishman, not excepting Shakespeare". The play was not revived in Paris until 1973 (although

's operatic version was frequently seen there from 1910 onwards)."Salomé d'Oscar Wilde"
Les Archives du spectacle. Retrieved 7 April 2021

Les Archives du spectacle Les Archives du spectacle – The Performing Arts Archive – is an online French database covering live performance (theatre, dance, opera, puppetry, etc.). It was created in 2007.Astor Theatre the following year, with

Mercedes Leigh Mercedes Leigh (née, Mercedes Leigh Hearne; March 20, 1867–?) was an American actress. She was widely known by her stage name, Mercedes Leigh, which she chose when she began her professional career. Her contemporaries were Mary Haviland Sutton ...

in the title role. The

Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade assoc ...

records five New York productions between 1917 and 2003."Salome"
Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 7 April 2021 The Salomes included

Evelyn Preer Evelyn Preer (née Jarvis; July 26, 1896 – November 17, 1932), was a pioneering American stage and screen actress and jazz and blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s. Preer was known within the black community as "The First Lady of ...

(1923),

Sheryl Lee Sheryl Lynn Lee (born April 22, 1967) is a German-born American film, stage, and television actress. After studying acting in college, Lee relocated to Seattle, Washington to work in theater, where she was cast by David Lynch as Laura Palmer and ...

(1992) and

Marisa Tomei Marisa Tomei ( , ; born December 4, 1964) is an American actress. She came to prominence as a cast member on ''The Cosby Show'' spin-off ''A Different World'' in 1987. After having minor roles in a few films, she came to international attention ...

(2003), and among the actors playing Herod was

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

in 1992 and 2003. The play was given in Czech in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

in 1924, and in English at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 1928 (directed by

Hilton Edwards Hilton Edwards (2 February 1903 – 18 November 1982) was an English-born Irish actor, lighting designer and theatrical producer. He co-founded the Gate Theatre with his partner Micheál Mac Liammóir and two others, and has been referred to as ...

, with

Micheál Mac Liammóir Micheál Mac Liammóir (born Alfred Willmore; 25 October 1899 – 6 March 1978) was an actor, designer, dramatist, writer and impresario in 20th-century Ireland. Though born in London to an English family with no Irish connections, he emigrated ...

as Jokanaan). In Tokyo in 1960

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...

directed a Japanese version in a translation by

Kōnosuke Hinatsu was the pen-name of a Japanese poet known for his romantic movement, romantic and gothic novel, gothic poetry patterned after English literature. His real name was Kunito Higuchi. Biography A native of what is now part of Iida, Nagano, Iida city ...

which, ''The Times'' reported, "rendered Wilde's rhetoric into the measured cadences of fifteenth-century Japanese". A later Japanese production was seen in Tokyo and subsequently in France in 1996.

Britain

In Britain, the Lord Chamberlain's consent to public performance still being withheld, the first production there was given in May 1905 in a private performance in London by the New Stage Club, in which the performance of

Robert Farquharson Robert Donald William Farquharson (born 1969) is an Australian man convicted of murdering his three sons on 4 September 2005, by deliberately driving his car into a farm dam. Farquharson was convicted in an earlier trial and was sentenced to ...

as Herod was reportedly of remarkable power.

Millicent Murby Millicent Beatrice Murby (1873 – 14 January 1951) was a British socialist activist. Murby worked as a postal clerk. She joined the Fabian Society in 1901, becoming secretary of the Clapham and District Fabian Society in 1907, and serving on ...

played Salome, and Florence Farr directed. A second private performance followed in 1906 by the Literary Theatre Society, with Farquharson again as Herod. The costumes and scenery by Charles Ricketts were much admired, but the rest of the cast and the direction were poor, according to Ross. A 1911 production at the Court Theatre by Harcourt Williams, with

Adeline Bourne Adeline Bourne (January 1873 - 8 February 1965) was an Anglo-Indian actress, suffragette and charity worker.'Miss Adeline Bourne: Actress and suffragette', ''The Times'', 10 February 1965 Life Adeline Bourne was born in India on 8 January 1873. S ...

as Salome, received disparaging notices. The ban on public performance of Salome was not lifted until 1931. The last "private" production, earlier that year, featuring a dance of the seven veils choreographed by

Ninette de Valois Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, ...

, was judged "creepily impressive" by ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''. For the first sanctioned public production, at the

Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy Pala ...

, Farquharson reprised his Herod, with real-life mother and daughter casting,

Nancy Price Nancy Price, CBE (3 February 1880 – 31 March 1970), was an English actress on stage and screen, author and theatre director. Her acting career began in a repertory theatre company before progressing to the London stage, silent films, talkies and ...

and

Joan Maude Joan Maude (16 January 1908 – 28 September 1998) was an English actress, active from the 1920s to the 1950s. She is probably best known for playing the Chief Recorder in the 1946 Powell and Pressburger film '' A Matter of Life and Death''. Th ...

as Herodias and Salome. The production was deemed tame and unthrilling, and the play – "gone modest and middle class" as one critic put it – was not seen again in the West End for more than twenty years. A 1954 London revival, a vehicle for the Australian actor

Frank Thring Francis William Thring (11 May 1926 – 29 December 1994) was an Australian character actor in radio, stage, television and film; as well as a theatre director. His early career started in London in theatre productions, before he starred in Ho ...

, made little impact, and it was not until

Lindsay Kemp Lindsay Keith Kemp (3 May 1938British Film Institute entry for Lindsa ...

's 1977 production at the Roundhouse that ''Salome'' was established as a critical and box-office success, running for six months in repertory with Kemp's adaptation of ''

Our Lady of the Flowers ''Our Lady of the Flowers'' (''Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs'') is the debut novel of French literature, French writer Jean Genet, first published in 1943. The free-flowing, poetic novel is a largely autobiographical novel, autobiographical account of a m ...

''.Kaplan, pp. 265 and 278 That version was a free adaptation of the original, with an all-male cast, switching between French and English texts and using only about a third of Wilde's dialogue. A 1988 production by

in which he played Herod, was seen at the Gate Theatre, the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

and at the National Theatre, London. It focused on Wilde's words, relying on the skills of the actors and the imagination of audiences to evoke the setting and action. A 2017 production by the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

, described as "gender fluid", featured a male actor,

Matthew Tennyson Matthew Tennyson is an English actor of stage and screen. He won the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Newcomer in 2012. Early life Tennyson was born in Stoke Newington, London, the son of Jonathan Tennyson, a physics professor, and a nur ...

, as Salome.

Critical reception

In ''

Les Annales du théâtre et de la musique ''Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique'' ("The Annals of Theatre and Music") was an annual French periodical which covered French dramatic and lyric theatre for 42 years, from 1875 to 1916. The volumes also covered concert series and ne ...

'', Edouard Stoullig reported that press reviews had been generally benevolent out of protest at the harsh treatment received by Wilde in Britain. In Stoullig's view the play was a good piece of rhetoric marred by too many "ridiculous repetitions" of lines by minor characters.Stoullig, pp. 413–414 In ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

Henry Fouquier Jacques François Henry Fouquier, (1 September 1838 – 25 December 1901) was a French journalist, writer, playwright and politician. He wrote for many newspapers and journals, often pseudonymously but with a style recognisably his own. He was best ...

shared Stoullig's view that the piece owed something to Flaubert, and thought it "an exercise in romantic literature, not badly done, a little boring". The reviewer in ''

Le Temps ''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...

'' said, "M. Wilde has certainly read Flaubert, and cannot forget it. The most interesting thing about ''Salome'' is the style. The work was written in French by M. Wilde. It is full of very elaborate and ornate verses. The colours, the stars, the birds, the rare gems, everything that adorns nature, has provided M. Wilde with points of comparison and ingenious themes for the stanzas and

antistrophe Antistrophe ( grc, ἀντιστροφή, "a turning back") is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west. Characteristics Usage as a lit ...

s that ''Salome's'' characters utter". ''

La Plume ''La Plume'' was a French bi-monthly literary and artistic review. The magazine was set up in 1889 by Léon Deschamps, who edited it for ten years and was succeeded as editor by Karl Boès from 1899 to 1914. Its offices were at number 31 rue Bo ...

'' said, "''Salomé'' has almost all the qualities of a poem, the prose is as musical and fluid as verse, full of images and metaphors". When banning the original 1892 production of ''Salome'', the responsible official in the Lord Chamberlain's office commented privately, "The piece is written in French – half Biblical, half pornographic – by Oscar Wilde himself. Imagine the average British public's reception of it". In Britain the critics in general either ignored or disparaged the play. ''The Times'' described it as "an arrangement in blood and ferocity, morbid, bizarre, repulsive, and very offensive in its adaptation of scriptural phraseology to situations the reverse of sacred". ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' suggested that the play was far from original: "the reader of ''Salome'' seems to stand in the Island of Voices, and to hear around him and about the utterances of friends, the whisperings of demigods" – particularly Gautier, Maeterlinck and above all Flaubert – "There is no freshness in Mr Wilde's ideas; there is no freshness in his method of presenting those ideas". New York reviewers were not impressed when the play was first professionally produced there in 1906: '' The Sun'' called it "bloodily degenerate"; '' The New-York Tribune'' thought it "decadent stuff, not worthy of notice".Tanitch, pp. 142–143 Raby comments that later criticism of the play "has tended to treat it either as a literary text or as a theatrical aberration". The historian John Stokes writes that ''Salome'' is a rare instance in British theatrical history of an authentically

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

drama. Symbolist authors rejected naturalism and used "poetic language and pictorial settings to invoke the inner lives of characters", expressing without the constraints of naturalism all kinds of emotions "both spiritual and sensual".

Themes and derivatives

Critics have analysed Wilde's use of images favoured by Israel's kingly poets and references to the moon, his depiction of power-play between the sexes,Hutcheon, Linda and Michel Hutcheon
"Here's Lookin' At You, Kid: The Empowering Gaze in Salome"
''Profession'', 1998 his filling in of gaps in the biblical narrativeMarrapodi, Eric
"A Head on a Silver Platter – Rethinking John the Baptist and Oscar Wilde"
CNN Belief Blog. Retrieved 7 April 2021 and his invention of the " dance of the seven veils".Ziolkowski, Theodore
"The Veil as Metaphor and as Myth"
''Religion & Literature'' Vol. 40, No. 2 (Summer 2008), pp. 61–81. Portrait of Ida Rubenstein1

Wilde's version of the story spawned several other artistic works, the most famous of which is

's opera of the same name. Strauss saw Wilde's play in Berlin in November 1902 at Reinhardt's Little Theatre, with

Gertrud Eysoldt Gertrud Franziska Gabriele Eysoldt (30 November 1870 – 6 January 1955) was a German actress. She appeared in more than fifteen films from 1923 to 1949. Selected filmography References External links * 1870 births 1955 deaths Peop ...

in the title role. He began to compose his opera in summer 1903, completing it in 1905 and premiering it later the same year. Critics including Horst Schroeder have argued that the international success of Strauss's adaptation "virtually drove Wilde's drama in its original form off the stage". There have been numerous adaptations and interpretations of Wilde's ''Salome'', on stage and screen and in the visual arts. In St Petersburg in 1908

Mikhail Fokine Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and a ...

created a ballet based on the play, with music by

Glazunov Glazunov (; feminine: Glazunova) is a Russian surname that may refer to: *Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936), Russian composer ** Glazunov Glacier in Antarctica named after Alexander * Andrei Glazunov, 19th-century Russian trade expedition leader * An ...

and décor by

Léon Bakst Léon Bakst (russian: Леон (Лев) Николаевич Бакст, Leon (Lev) Nikolaevich Bakst) – born as Leyb-Khaim Izrailevich (later Samoylovich) Rosenberg, Лейб-Хаим Израилевич (Самойлович) Розенбе ...

Ida Rubinstein Ida Lvovna Rubinstein (russian: И́да Льво́вна Рубинште́йн; – 20 September 1960) was a Russian dancer, actress, art patron and Belle Époque figure. She performed with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1911 and ...

played Salome. For the cinema, ''Salome'' was first filmed in an American silent version directed by

J. Stuart Blackton James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941) was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to ...

in 1908, with

Florence Lawrence Florence Lawrence (born Florence Annie Bridgwood; January 2, 1886 – December 28, 1938) was a Canadian-American stage performer and film actress. She is often referred to as the "first movie star", and was thought to be the first film actor to ...

as Salome and

Maurice Costello Maurice George Costello (February 22, 1877 – October 29, 1950) was a prominent American vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s who later played a principal role in early American films as leading man, supporting player, and director ...

as Herod, followed by an Italian version in 1910. Later adaptations include a 1918 silent film starring

Theda Bara Theda Bara ( ; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatal ...

, a 1923 silent version directed by Charles Bryant starring

Alla Nazimova Alla Nazimova (Russian: Алла Назимова; born Marem-Ides Leventon, Russian: Марем-Идес Левентон; June 3 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._May_22.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O ...

as Salome and Mitchell Lewis as Herod, and a 2013 sound adaptation directed by and starring Al Pacino, with

Jessica Chastain Jessica Michelle Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and producer. Known for primarily starring in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. ''Time'' ...

as Salome. Excerpts from the play featured prominently in Ken Russell's 1988 film ''

Salome's Last Dance ''Salome's Last Dance'' is a 1988 British film written and directed by Ken Russell. Although most of the action is a verbatim performance of Oscar Wilde's 1891 play ''Salome'', which is itself based on a story from the New Testament, there is al ...

''."Salome's Last Dance (1988)"
British Film Institute. Retrieved 23 April 2022

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* *
Project Gutenberg
e-text of Wilde's ''Salomé'' (French)
Study guide
containing analysis, glossary and historical background. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salome (Play) Plays by Oscar Wilde Symbolist plays French-language plays 1891 plays One-act plays Cultural depictions of John the Baptist Plays based on the Bible Irish plays adapted into films Tragedy plays Broadway plays Cultural depictions of Salome